IBM: Putting Smart Strategy to Work
Businesses of the world are changing the way they work and IBM has a strategy to help them. Ann
Rubin, vice president of corporate marketing at IBM, explains: “IBM is in a constant state of
innovation, preparing for a world that is infused with digital intelligence and a world where humans
and machines work side-by-side to do things that humans simply cannot do alone.” “‘Let’s Put
Smart To Work’ is our new brand platform,” she continues, but “it’s not just
advertising, it’s bigger than that. ‘Let’s Put Smart To Work’ is an invitation. We’re asking clients
and partners to work with us to put smart to work to use innovative technologies to change
businesses and industries and organizations.”
THE NEW IBM
IBM has a hundred-plus-year history of innovation. Since its early days as the Tabulating Machine
Company, IBM has gone through many dramatic transformations. The company shifted from
tabulation machines, to typewriters, to computers, to business services and consulting, to artificial
intelligence in response to changes in technology, the global economy, and business practices.
Along the way IBM developed several well-known products such as the automated teller machine
(ATM), the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, and the Universal Product Code (UPC). In
addition, researchers at the company won four Nobel prizes and six Turing awards for
contributions of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field. IBM is in the top 20
of the world’s most valuable brands and in the top 50 of the world’s most admired companies.
